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Keywords: Towards Healing

  • RELIGION

    Child abuse dobbing laws

    • Frank Brennan
    • 24 July 2012
    42 Comments

    Most, if not all priests, would prefer to go to jail than disclose material from confession. The seal of the confessional is a red herring when it comes to protecting children. If confessional reporting were mandatory, chances are that the perpetrator would simply not come to confession.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Church transparency key to protecting children

    • David Cappo
    • 06 March 2012
    21 Comments

    The Protecting Victoria's Vulnerable Children Inquiry has set a new benchmark. A particular challenge to churches is the recommendation regarding mandatory reporting for clergy and church personnel. Any equivocation on this would be viewed with disdain by the community.

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  • EUREKA STREET TV

    Retired bishop confronts militant religion

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 10 February 2012

    Much reporting in the mainstream media heightens the sense of threat represented by militant Islamic minorities. William Swing, founder of one of the largest international interfaith organisations, seeks to mobilise believers from all traditions to work towards common goals.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Ghosts of children passed

    • Alison Sampson
    • 02 November 2011
    22 Comments

    'Did I have a brother once?' asks a little boy, no longer sure. His mother's eyes fill with tears. 'Yes, darling. A long time ago, you had a baby brother of your own.' He shouts triumphantly, 'I did have a brother!' and runs off. We mothers glance at each other, then look away. There are no words.

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  • RELIGION

    Vigilante Xenophon's name shame

    • Andrew McGowan
    • 16 September 2011
    29 Comments

    Sexual offenders among clergy and church workers have often used their privileged status to act as though they were above the law. By using parliamentary privilege to name an alleged perpetrator, Senator Nick Xenophon has acted in a way that is, ironically, all too similar.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sex abuse action and the seal of confession

    • Michael Mullins
    • 25 July 2011
    29 Comments

    Senator Nick Xenophon's call to protect children by ending the seal of confession was an affront to freedom of religion. But he speaks for many Australians, whose goodwill is necessary to preserve such religious practices.

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  • RELIGION

    Twelve Steps to healing an abusive Church

    • Neil Ormerod
    • 23 March 2011
    32 Comments

    I received a letter from a former student. Ten years ago, he had suddenly vanished without warning or further communication. Now he was about to reveal the reasons for his disappearance. It was the sort of story I had heard often before.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Shoulder angels

    • Diane Fahey
    • 14 December 2010
    3 Comments

    The one on the left, wearing crimson tights, promises the world, probes with his pitchfork for hidden desires, sports a prehensile tail able to wrap around your mind ... his counterpart, in snowy alb, meditates on your right shoulder, sending into your soul's bloodstream a thirst for peace ...

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  • RELIGION

    Rethinking indigeneity in the age of globalisation

    • Frank Brennan
    • 01 November 2010
    3 Comments

    There is an emerging Aboriginal middle class. The contested questions in those communities relate to the expensive delivery of services including health, housing and education. The contested issue in the urban community is over self-identification as Aboriginal by persons of mixed descent.

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  • RELIGION

    Tony Abbott, the poor and Jesus

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 19 February 2010
    30 Comments

    Expressing scepticism about the value of politicians committing to healing social problems, Abbott quoted Jesus: 'The poor you have with you always'. This phrase, used here to diffuse the claim the poor make on us, is much richer in meaning when read in context.

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  • RELIGION

    Patient autonomy and the doctor's conscience

    • Frank Brennan
    • 18 September 2009
    4 Comments

    In Life and Death: How do we honour the Patient's Autonomy and the Doctor's Conscience? Frank Brennan's Sandra David Oration at St Vincent's Clinic, Darlinghurst, Sydney, 17 September 2009.

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  • RELIGION

    Sharing our paradoxes: steps for a dialogue between Christians and Muslims

    • Herman Roborgh
    • 25 June 2009

    The scriptures of both Islam and Christianity are full of paradoxes. Some readers of paradoxes simply emphasise only one part of the paradox. (Full text of Herman Roborgh's Dialogue Australasia article, May 2009.)

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